Sir Richard Branson has confirmed that he is interested in joining a bid to buy back Virgin Records, the label that has released records by artists including the Sex Pistols, the Spice Girls and the Rolling Stones, if Universal Music is forced to offload the company to gain regulatory clearance to takeover EMI.

Branson, who started the record company as a mail-order delivery service in 1970 when he was just 20 years old, has held conversations with French entrepreneur Patrick Zelnik to buy the label if it is put up for sale.

"Richard Branson and Virgin have been assessing how to get back into recorded music business for many years," said a spokesman for Virgin Group. "The potential disposal of Virgin Records by Universal Music offers a wonderful opportunity to recreate a dynamic independent label in the market."

The disposal of Virgin Records could be seen to be a particularly attractive option for Universal Music, given Branson's strength and heritage in the industry.

"Virgin Records is a discrete business unit with a very strong brand that with Richard and Patrick's involvement could be a powerful independent player owned by industry veterans," said one music industry source. "That would play well with the regulator, particularly after the fiasco of EMI being run by private equity under Guy Hands."

Zelnik, who launched Virgin Records in France in 1980, said that he has held talks with Branson about joining a bid he is considering through his own label Naive.

"It is a reality that Branson is interested in supporting a bid by my company, we have spoken about this, this is true," he said, warning that a definitive agreement to bid had not yet been reached. "It is early, Richard is never going to invest, same for me, until there is a real business plan."

Zelnik cautioned that a sale of Virgin Records, which ultimately provided the launchpad for what would become Branson's empire, was not a certainty. No formal approach has been made to Universal Music.

The world's largest music company is being forced to potentially divest a number of labels in order to gain approval from European antitrust regulators to push through its £1.2bn takeover of EMI.

"Any potential deal is subject to many things," Zelnik said. "First, is a merger going to go through, it might be blocked by the [European] commission. If it is not blocked I can confirm that one remedy is the disposal [by Universal] of some assets. Among them Virgin Records is on the list."

Zelnik added that as an 80% shareholder in Naive records he was also able to mount a bid for Virgin Records himself – no price tag has as yet been speculated for the value of the business – or could also look for support from private equity.

A combination of the impact of the gulf war, recession and a costly battle with British Airways forced Branson to sell Virgin Records to the then Thorn-EMI for £510m in 1992.

Universal was originally bullish about pushing the deal through the regulatory process, and offered few concessions.

However, the music giant is under immense pressure as it has guaranteed to pay EMI's owner Citibank the entire £1.2bn regardless of whether the deal goes through.

The mega-merger which would bring together Universal artists including Lady Gaga and U2 with EMI acts such as the Beatles and Katy Perry, is facing a formidable number of regulatory hurdles raised by the European regulator in an almost 200-page statement of objections earlier this month.

"At the beginning it was thought internally that it wouldn't be very difficult to gain clearance; you could say there was almost an adverserial attitude to making concessions," said a source with knowledge of Universal Music's strategy. "It is now very clear that there are some big issues and rather than push back we need to see what we can do in terms of structural and behavioural remedies to get this through."

The competition regulator has raised concerns over the combined company's potential domination of The Voice and other TV shows, the price of digital music and dominance of its acts on radio and elsewhere.

Independent music lobby group Impala, which has members including Adele's label Beggars Group, held a vote at a board meeting on Monday that maintained opposition to the deal.

"The issue isn't just digital, it's physical and access to media – exposure for new artists, as well as the foreclosure of independents when it comes to signing artists," said the Impala executive chair, Helen Smith.

Impala passes decisions by a two-thirds majority vote of its 25 board members.

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